Penalties. Do you count them?

Every time I play golf, I count every single penalty shot. It's brutal because sometimes I have a lot. For example, last week while playing Bear's Best Golf Club, I had a total of 9 penalty shots for 18 holes.

How do I determine what a penalty is? I think it's the same as the PGA. Anything that is considered out of bounds, water hazards, balls that are not OB, but are un-hittable (i.e. up against a tree). Basically, anytime I have to touch the golf ball with my hand and move it, except for the putting greens. I do my best to avoid penalties, but they are inevitable. I'm hoping that as I improve and become more consistent after my lessons, I'll minimize these wretched penalty shots.

But, this got me thinking... when outside of a tournament situation, do other people count their penalties? I've played with people who do and some who don't. Some of the "don't" people, use their non-penalty scores to calculate their index. Is this right? I don't know. For me, I'd rather take the hit (and not be happy about it) and count them in my score and ultimately my index.

The worst are those who don't count penalties, hit a lot of them, and when their score at the end of the round is better than mine or others in the group, they subtly rub it in or brag about it. Whatever floats their boat...

What do you do?